justiceforkeithlamar

The original charge that I came to prison for was murder. I was a drug dealer, prior to coming to prison. A group of guys came to rob me one day. A shootout ensued. I shot a man twice in the chest, and was myself shot twice and left for dead. Unfortunately, the man I shot died, and I was sent to prison. I was sentenced to 18 years to life. With respect to the riot and who killed the prisoners that I was convicted and sentenced to death, a member of the Black Gangster Disciples, came forward and admitted to killing one of the individuals I was convicted of murdering. In other instance, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, was indicted of killing someone for whom I was later convicted and sentenced to death. In another instance, another prisoner admitted to killing an alleged informant, and claimed that I gave him the order to do what he did. But he made these claims after being coached by the prosecution. In fact in nearly every instance where I was charged for killing someone in the riot, I could point to an exact culprit to the crime. But, the state withheld this evidence during my trial, depriving me and the jury of having access to this very important information. I explain this all in greater detail in my book, Condemned, and I ask people to go to my website, www.keithlamar.org, where they can view these statements for themselves. I realize in speaking about these things it sounds unbelievable. But, I'm not asking anyone to take my word for anything. It took me over ten years to uncover these statements that were withheld from me during my trial. I now have these statements, I now have these indictments, I now have these conflicting statements and the evidence speaks for itself. I'm not making this stuff up.

when I first came to prison, there were pell grants which allowed inmates to go to high education, but those were then rescinded, preventing inmates from getting a college degree. when I came to prison I got my GED and enrolled in college, but they rescinded the pell grants. they do have vocational programs here and some have benefited from that. But, being in solitary confinement I cannot benefit from those programs, because I cannot participate in them. Since I've been solitary confinement, 21 of the 25 years I have been in prison, I have been able to participate in the programs. Whatever rehabilitation I have achieved, has been through my own efforts. Through my own desire to do something positive and righteous with my life, and I think that hold true for most prisoners. Contrary to popular belief, and despite the stated goal of those that run these places, prisoners are not here to be rehabilitated. Prisoners are not being prepared to reintegrate into society. Prison is big business now. And instead of being viewed as citizens, they are viewed as customers. Just like McDonalds, they want you to come back. They make more money if you are in prison, rather than in society, as sad as they may sound.

I believe so. It's not hard to understand how that would play a part in people coming to that conclusion, and that's been a great hurdle for me to overcome. I believe that is part of the reason why the state selected me out of an array of other individuals, and why it's been so easy for me to blatantly violate my rights. I understood this going into this whole thing. I've been dealing with the criminal justice system since I've been 13 years old. Yes, earlier in my life before the Lucasville Uprising, I took someone's life, but this person that I killed was my childhood friend, we played basketball. In 1988, the year crack cocaine became an epidemic, we found ourselves on opposite ends of a crazy situation. I was a drug dealer and he was a dope fiend. He came to rob me, and this tragic thing happened. So, people have to judge me in that context. I wasn't sitting on my front porch taking pot shots at random strangers. I was defending myself against someone who intended to do me harm. Yes, I took somebody's life. But, I'm not a killer though. I suffer greatly for what I've done, not merely because of the fact that I've been in prison, but from the knowledge of knowing that I took another human being's life. This is the thing that prevented me from taking the state's deal during the trial after the riots. from pleading guilty to something I didn't do. Taking someone else's life and losing my own life in the process, made me appreciate life. Made me want to do something with my life. And so when the prosecutors came to me and asked me to give up my life for something that I didn't do, I couldn't do it. The state offered me life sentences if I copped to the murders I didn't do, but I chose not to. That is when they pursued the death penalty against me. We as human beings make mistakes. Big mistakes and small mistakes, and if we're lucky, we learn from those mistakes. We become better than what we were. We become smarter than what we were. And when we know better, we can do better. And that's what I've been trying to do.

Psychologically, you become despondent, you go through bouts of depression. You go through periods where you don't want to be around people. You become hypersensitive to things, sound, touch. Fortunately, I have been able to control some of the psychological damage that solitary confinement causes, but I have seen guys forget their own name. I've been around guys that smear their own feces all over themselves. To be in the vicinity of these very frightening things is terrifying, because I don't have any illusions about my mental strength or mental capacity, because at the end of the day, I'm a human being. So, for this to happen to guys around me, it tells me it could happen to me. This is one of the reasons I am trying so desperately to get out of this situation.

The riot started because of a problem Muslim prisoners had with the administration. That was the stated reason for the riot, but really it was bound to happen I believe. At the time, Lucasville was a very oppressive and racist place, and prisoners were being brutalized down there. For religious reasons, the muslims refused to take a TB test that used alcohol, and then decided to take over the prison to stage a protest. The riot lasted for 11 days. For those of us who did take the TB test, we were out on the yard. So, I did not participate in the riot. I was out on the yard. When we were out in the yard, after the state police and national guard showed up, they took a position and watched as dead bodies were being dumped on the prison yard in front of everybody. The authorities did nothing. It occurred to me, along with everyone else that was watching it, that I could have been one of those bodies. After we were removed from the yard, later that following morning we were placed in random groups of 10 in single man cells naked. A man was killed during this time. When this was discovered by the investigators, other prisoners and I refused to talk or be enticed into becoming informants. This is where all of the madness really began for me. I joined others in persuading prisoners not to become informants, as after seeing bodies of informants being dumped into the yard it was not a safe to do. So, we demonstrated against the way we had been treated. we were left for dead, basically. Anything could have happened to us. Guys were raped. Guys were jumped on. And the people who's job it was to intervene stood back and did nothing. This angered a lot of us. Then, after all was said and done, they asked us to become informants, to do the very thing that had resulted in several inmates losing their lives. and I said fuck that. Fuck you. And that made myself a target.